Travancore Sisters-LALITHA,PADMINI,RAGINI

Lalitha, Padmini ,and Ragini; the threesome were known as the Travancore sisters.Born
and raised in Thiruvananthapuram(Trivandrum) in what was then the
princely state of Travancore (now the Indian state of Kerala), they were
the daughters of Thankappan Pillai and Saraswathi Amma.

They
learnt bharathanatyam from Great Vazhuvoor Ramaiah pillai. Padmini and
her sisters were disciples of the noted Indian dancer Guru Gopinath .
They learnt Kerala natanam style of dancing from him. The noted film
director, P. Subrahmaniam, noticed their talents while presenting
'Parijatha Pushpapaharanam 'in Trivandrum

Lalitha was the eldest and Ragini the yougest. Padmini gained the maximum success and has acted in more than 250 filmsIn 1957, Lalitha got married and quit films to settle down in Trivandrum

marriedto
Dr Ramachandran, a US-based physician, in 1961 Padmini retired, though
temporarily, from films and focused on married life and refining her
classical dance. She settled in the United States and in 1977 opened her
classical dance school in New Jersey, The 'Padmini School of Fine
Arts'. Her school is today one of the largest Indian Classical Dance
institutions in America.Padmini
died from a heart attack in the Chennai Apollo Hospital on September
24, 2006. Lalitha and Ragini expired before padmini due to various healh
problems

L TOR--LALITHA--PADMINI--RAGINI

PADMINI AS A FILM ACTRESS

In
a interview to shobha warrior padmini said:-The Travancore sisters'
initiation into films happened accidentally when an uncle of theirs
invited renowned dancer Uday Shankar for dinner during one of their
visits to Mumbai. Uday Shankar called the sisters to Madras to act in a
film based on dance which he was planning to make.Lalitha and Padmini ( Travancore sisters) entertained
Pandit Jawharlal Nehru at a reception given by the officers of the
Defence services in Madras on July 26, 1949 at St. Thomas Mount, Madras.That
is how at the age of 14, Padmini became an actress. Her first Tamil
film, 'Manamagal', was a big hit and Padmini became hit in Tamil. While
her sisters concentrated only on Malayalam films, Padmini was more
active in Tamil. But she remembered one Malayalam film Adhyapika
(Teacher) in which she played the teacher. The movie was completed in
just 13 days in Trivandrum and got a National Award for that film."

She
adds, "We sisters had a lovely time in those days because we were in
the same profession. We used to act in films, and dance on stage. We
formed a troupe called Dancers of India."

The
members of the dance troupe included not only the three sisters but
their cousins, Sukumari and Ambika, both well known actresses in
Malayalam. (In fact, Sukumari acts in films[സുകുമാരി (6 October 1940 – 26 March 2013]

Dance
was their passion, not films. What they performed in films -- the snake
charmers, Krishna Leela, the story of Radha-Krishna, etc -- were picked
up from stage. And, they would travel all around the world with their
troupe. In one of their famous dance dramas, Ramayana , Padmini played
Sita and her younger sister Ragini, Rama. The eldest Lalitha was Ravana
and Sukumari and Ambika danced as Hanuman and Bharatan respectively.
"Being the tallest, Ragini always performed the male characters. And, as
I was the shortest, I was the female lead all the time."

"I used to play characters who were crying most of the time. Ragini was good at comedy roles and Lalitha in vampish roles."

She
then compared the 1940s, when the sisters shone in films, and the
1990s. "There is not much of a difference between then and now. Of
course, technically, films have improved a lot. Those days, we used to
concentrate only on one film at a time. We used to read the full script
and discuss it with the director who was the most important person. And,
most of the directors in those days were studio owners and they
themselves were the producers."

Though
her voice was husky, she used to dub herself in all her films. "I used
to act in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. And there was no
dubbing for me in any of the languages. For that, you have to put in a
lot of effort. I believe that no dubbing artiste can do full justice to
what you do on screen. I don't know why today's actresses let their voce
be dubbed. Lack of time? Lazy to learn the lines? We used to work three
shifts but when we were doing the make-up, the dialogue writer would
read the lines to us. That was how we used to learn the lines."

She
also told me about how make-up changed when films changed to colour
from black and white. "My first colour film was 'Valli' in Tamil.
Make-up was completely different in colour. In black and white, we would
apply dark make-up with shades but in colour, it was pinkish and
plain."

It was in
1952 that Padmini entered the Hindi film industry with a dance in
'Kalpana.' But her full length role was in 'Mr Sampath' (the film was
based on a book written by R K Narayan) opposite Moti Lal. Mr Sampath
was first made in Tamil with Pushpavalli (Rekha's mother) doing the role
Padmini did in Hindi.

After
Nargis left RK Studios, Padmini was the first actress to join it. The
sisters knew Nargis and Raj Kapoor from 1953 onwards. It was at a
cricket match between the film stars of Bombay and Madras that they met
Nargis. While Padmini scored the highest for Madras, Nargis did so for
Bombay. From that day onwards, both became good friends.

When
Nargis and Raj Kapoor came to shoot 'Chori Chori' in Madras, Padmini's
mother gave them a house to stay in, close to where the sisters lived.
So they used to meet everyday. Nargis used to visit Padmini's shooting
and she would go and see Nargis on the sets. But more than Padmini, her
younger sister Ragini was closer to Nargis.

In
1957, Lalitha got married and quit films to settle down in Trivandrum.
In 1961, Padmini got married to Dr Ramachandran. In 1970, they migrated
to the United States.

When
I met Padmini in 1996, both Lalitha and Ragini were no more. "I miss
them a lot," Padmini had said. "Once when Lalitha came to the United
States, I made her dance on stage after 23 long years. We performed
together in Chicago. When Ragini came, we performed on stage together.
Those were unforgettable moments."

In
1992, when their niece, actress Shobhana, visited Padmini, they
performed the dance-drama 'Valli Thirumanam'. Shobhana was Valli and
Padmini, Lord Muruga.

the last film of the late G Aravindan, Vaasthuhara (Mohanlal
and Shobhana played the lead) in which Padmini had essayed a small role. was curious to know how she ended up acting in an Aravindan film. "My
son had gone to meet Aravindan. Aravindan asked him whether I would act
in his Vaasthuhara. I accepted the role only because I wanted to work
with him as I had heard a lot about him. He would barely talk on the
sets. If he wanted to tell us something, he would come near us and tell
us in a very low voice. He never interfered in our acting. We were given
full freedom. Some directors make such a lot of fuss. But Aravindan was
very different and I enjoyed the experience."Among
all the actors she had acted with, Sivaji Ganesan and Raj Kapoor were
her favourites. She said work was very systematic and disciplined in the
South while everything started late in Mumbai. "Sivaji would even reach
the location an hour early. That was the kind of discipline he
followed," she said."I attribute my success and happiness to God. Without God, there is nothing."But fame does not seem to have affected her."It
all depends on an individual's nature," she replies. "We were brought
up in a disciplined way by our mother. There was a "lakshman rekha" we
had to obey. Mother came to a strange place (Madras) from Travancore,
made us all stars and got us married too ... all arranged marriages and
into the best of families.

Was
he supportive and understanding? "It was a very happy marriage," she
says. "I miss my husband very much. He passed away on September 16,
1981. He was a true lover of the arts and could sing very well. My
husband would sit in the first row during my dance recitals and was my
best critic

Sukhame Sukhame Swarga Sukhame - Ponkathir 1953[video removed by?]

Ragini in her only appearance in the movie, is the ‘Male’, while Lalitha
plays the leader of the agitators.The rich male(RAGINI) questions their
objectives and vision and their methods to reach their goal

RAGINI DRESSED AS A MALE ACTOR

Aanandaroopan Aarivanaaro - Ponkathir 1953

Padmini died of a heart attack at the Chennai Apollo Hospital on 24 September 2006.